£40,000 Street Clean Blasts A Tonne Of Gum

A JOINTLY funded twelve month partnership by CityCo and the Heart of Manchester BID (Business Improvement District) to clean up Manchester’s city centre shopping streets has used around 10,000 litres of water to jetwash 90,000 sq metres of pavement, equivalent to around twelve football pitches.

“The city centre has never been busier, so making sure it looks its best is a top priority for us"

The extensive £40,000 street clean, carried out by specialist contractor, Ramora, began in June this year and has so far removed nearly 800,000 pieces of chewing gum from pavements.

The work has been targeting the city’s retail core, hitting high footfall areas including Market Street, Deansgate, King St, St Ann’s Square, High Street and Portland Street as well as side streets such as Police Street, Spring Gardens and Tib Street Square.

Continuing well into next year, the scrub-up has been undertaken to make the city centre ship-shape for an increasing number of large crowd-drawing events such as Manchester’s various festivals, Vogue’s Fashion Night Out, Dig The City and the recent Christmas Markets.

Before and after jetwashing

Emma Cooke, Operations Manager for CityCo said: “This is additional funding which means we’ve been able to focus on the side streets as well as the main thoroughfares. Clean streets make a real difference to a city centre. People tend to have greater respect for the public realm and we find this reduces the dropping of litter, cigarette butts and gum.”

Councillor Pat Karney, Manchester City Council’s city centre spokesperson said: “The city centre has never been busier, so making sure it looks its best is a top priority for us. To have this extra resource from CityCo and the BID is fantastic. This is another great example of the public and private sector working together to make Manchester a better place for all to enjoy.”

Confidential thinks any initiative to clean up city centre streets should be applauded. However, having braved the city centre a number of times since the arrival of this year's Christmas Markets (and for months beforehand), we're certain that we're not the only ones thinking...where are all the bloody bins? £14.5m could buy us a fair few.

Blast the pavements, remove the gum. Brilliant. Well done. But if city centre bins are so wildly overfilled that any sparkling gum-free pavements are scattered with detritus then really, what is the point?

More bins needed. And quickly.

But, that aside, keep up the good work we say.

Bin liner replaced but litter left

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More bins are due, and they will be 2/3 times bigger than the ones we have, so it's all good. For far too long the centre of town has looked really really grubby. A quick look on Trip Adviser and you can see lots very negative comments about Manchester being one of the dirtiest cities people have visited. It's a shame people don't have pride in the place they live and work. Can we jet wash Piccadilly Gardens away by any chance?!

£40k of tax payers' money wasted because of selfish, lazy people. I save my chewing gum wrapper, wrap my used gum in it and then bin it when I come across a bin. People just aren't proud enough of this city to care.

'When I come across a Bin' that's part of the problem, there are hardly any.

AnonymousDecember 3rd 2013.

Most chewing gum now seems to come in blister packs or those packs of rectangular tablet-like gum pieces so no wrapper to save. Without a handy bin you're relying on an old tissue/bus ticket/till receipt. Although some people do seem to think it's OK to just spit it out on the pavement.

AnonymousDecember 3rd 2013.

I walk around the city every day and there are bins all over the place. More are put on during events too. Even if there was a bin every ten metres, some lazy f*** will still drop litter.

rinkydinkDecember 3rd 2013.

And who wants to see big bins everywhere anyway? It'll end up looking like a council estate full of wheelie bins

AnonymousDecember 3rd 2013.

And...what's wrong with council estates?!!!

AnonymousDecember 4th 2013.

Not tax payers money - profit from airport. if everyone could understand why they need to be proud of their city.... The money could be spent on something positive rather than clearing up other peoples mess.

AnonymousDecember 3rd 2013.

Speaking of Bins, the new ones they've put in on Piccadilly, already have the paint peeling...

More bins are needed and a zero tolerance to street urination. I walked sown Deansgate at 5:30 on Saturday and it appeared that any remotely discrete corned was being used as a toilet. I'm fed up of making the same walk on a Sunday morning accompanied by a stench.

Ha, I'll combine them both for you. Last year during a midweek football match, town was flooded with German or Dutch fans. As I walked past Spar on Saint Mary's Gate on my lunch, I saw a foreign fan urinating into the bin next to the doorway. At the same time a police van was at the light on Deansgate and when I told the coppers, they didn't bother doing anything.

David Michael EvansDecember 11th 2013.

Is anybody ever prosecuted for litter or dropping chewing gum? Until this is policed effectively, it will be the same again in no time...its throwing away money unless they force, by fining and policing, a see change in people's behaviour. San Diego, California...you could literally eat of f the pavement it is that clean. Why are there no signs up threatening fines. In New York City.. 'Littering is Filthy and Selfish $100 Fine'. But nobody really cares in the UK.